Bernie Lowe, 75; Gave The World The 'Twist' And The 'bristol Stomp'
By Andy Wallace, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 03, 1993
Bernie Lowe, 75, songwriter and co-founder of Cameo-Parkway Records - the independent recording company that gave the world Chubby Checker and the Twist - died Wednesday at his home in Wyncote.
Besides discovering Chubby Checker, Cameo-Parkway was responsible for the Dovells' "Bristol Stomp," the Orlons' "Wah-Watusi," Dee Dee Sharp's ''Mashed Potato Time" and dozens of other hit dance records in the heady days of rock 'n roll. The company also turned out hits for Bobby Rydell and The Tymes.
Between 1956 and 1964, Cameo-Parkway was said to be the largest independent label in the country, and Mr. Lowe "was the Philadelphia dance maven," said his daughter, Lynne Lowe Jacobus.
"He turned out the stuff that Dick Clark played.
"He would come home with a new dance every week - the fish, limbo rock, watusi, the mashed potato," she said.
She said she and her sister, Judith Garfield, used to try out all the new dance tunes and help Mr. Lowe separate the hits from the flops. "We would give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and he would decide which to go with," she said.
Of all the hits he composed or produced, she said, the one closest to his heart was "South Street" by the Orlons - "because he was born and raised on South Street," she said.
Born Bernard Lowenthal, Mr. Lowe graduated from Central High School and studied piano at The Juilliard School in New York. When he was 13, he was playing the piano in clubs, hotels and cafes around the city.
After high school, he played for Meyer Davis and for orchestras led by Howard and Lester Lanin. He performed in night clubs around the country.
In 1956, he and his partner, Kal Mann, founded Cameo Records in the basement of Mr. Lowe's house in West Oak Lane. The two men, both composers, wrote a song, "Butterfly," and got South Philadelphia singer Charlie Gracie to record it.
The record sold a million copies and financed the founding of Cameo Records. A subsidiary, Parkway Records, was added in 1959. Mr. Lowe, with Mann and Dave Appel, wrote most of the songs the company recorded.
Cameo-Parkway focused on the teenage market and enjoyed phenomenal success
from its founding through the mid-1960s. At one time, it was one of the four largest producers of hit singles (then 45 rpm) in the country.
Mr. Lowe was never sure why the company was so successful.
"I feel like I'm the world's oldest teenager," he said in an interview in 1964, "but you can't really predict how the kids are going to react.
"We have people who go to the hops and parties all over the country and see what the kids are playing. DJs tell us what they request and of course we follow the sales, but the kids are still unpredictable."
Cameo-Parkway not only sold to the teenage market. The company went out of its way to find young talent.
Every Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon, the company opened its studio and invited teenage musicians or musical groups to make a tape. Sometimes, they recorded as many as 20 tapes a day.
"We really don't expect to find any new talent this way," Lowe said at the time, "but we don't want to take any chances on missing any, either."
After all, Cameo-Parkway's greatest talent discovery - Chubby Checker - had been recommended by a friend of Kal Mann's who had discovered the singer, then named Ernest Evans, plucking chickens in a poultry house.
Mann and Mr. Lowe auditioned him and were impressed.
About the same time, American Bandstand host Dick Clark was urging his friends at Cameo-Parkway to record the "Twist," a song written and performed by Hank Ballard. Mann and Mr. Lowe had Evans - renamed Chubby Checker by Dick Clark's wife - redo the Ballard piece, note-for-note.
The result was a record that twice climbed to the top of the pop charts, in 1960 and again in 1962, started a dance craze and put Philadelphia at the center of the pop music industry.
Mr. Lowe accepted no credit for starting the twist. He felt Chubby Checker had come along at just the right moment after the dance already started and, with his hip-swinging gyrations and his hoarse delivery, popularized it.
Cameo-Parkway's successes made Mr. Lowe famous. But he was introspective and shy, and "always in awe of what was happening to him," said his daughter. "He was almost terrified of being famous."
Although he played the piano most of his life and played it well, he was so shy that he had to be begged to play at parties, she said. "The only time he would graciously play was when we were all alone in the house, and I would sing and my sister would dance."
The Cameo-Parkway label was sold in 1965, and Mr. Lowe retired.
For a time, he continued to work in the recording industry, doing some
freelance music work and scouting for new performing groups. But he developed Parkinson's disease after he retired and was soon unable to work.
In April, Mr. Lowe was inducted into the Philadelphia Walk of Fame, and his star was placed in the sidewalk in front of 309 S. Broad St., the building that was once the headquarters for Cameo-Parkway.
He is survived by his wife, Rosalyn Land Lowe; daughters, Lynne Lowe Jacobus and Judith Garfield; three sisters, and four granddaughters.
Services and burial will be private
By Andy Wallace, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 03, 1993
Bernie Lowe, 75, songwriter and co-founder of Cameo-Parkway Records - the independent recording company that gave the world Chubby Checker and the Twist - died Wednesday at his home in Wyncote.
Besides discovering Chubby Checker, Cameo-Parkway was responsible for the Dovells' "Bristol Stomp," the Orlons' "Wah-Watusi," Dee Dee Sharp's ''Mashed Potato Time" and dozens of other hit dance records in the heady days of rock 'n roll. The company also turned out hits for Bobby Rydell and The Tymes.
Between 1956 and 1964, Cameo-Parkway was said to be the largest independent label in the country, and Mr. Lowe "was the Philadelphia dance maven," said his daughter, Lynne Lowe Jacobus.
"He turned out the stuff that Dick Clark played.
"He would come home with a new dance every week - the fish, limbo rock, watusi, the mashed potato," she said.
She said she and her sister, Judith Garfield, used to try out all the new dance tunes and help Mr. Lowe separate the hits from the flops. "We would give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and he would decide which to go with," she said.
Of all the hits he composed or produced, she said, the one closest to his heart was "South Street" by the Orlons - "because he was born and raised on South Street," she said.
Born Bernard Lowenthal, Mr. Lowe graduated from Central High School and studied piano at The Juilliard School in New York. When he was 13, he was playing the piano in clubs, hotels and cafes around the city.
After high school, he played for Meyer Davis and for orchestras led by Howard and Lester Lanin. He performed in night clubs around the country.
In 1956, he and his partner, Kal Mann, founded Cameo Records in the basement of Mr. Lowe's house in West Oak Lane. The two men, both composers, wrote a song, "Butterfly," and got South Philadelphia singer Charlie Gracie to record it.
The record sold a million copies and financed the founding of Cameo Records. A subsidiary, Parkway Records, was added in 1959. Mr. Lowe, with Mann and Dave Appel, wrote most of the songs the company recorded.
Cameo-Parkway focused on the teenage market and enjoyed phenomenal success
from its founding through the mid-1960s. At one time, it was one of the four largest producers of hit singles (then 45 rpm) in the country.
Mr. Lowe was never sure why the company was so successful.
"I feel like I'm the world's oldest teenager," he said in an interview in 1964, "but you can't really predict how the kids are going to react.
"We have people who go to the hops and parties all over the country and see what the kids are playing. DJs tell us what they request and of course we follow the sales, but the kids are still unpredictable."
Cameo-Parkway not only sold to the teenage market. The company went out of its way to find young talent.
Every Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon, the company opened its studio and invited teenage musicians or musical groups to make a tape. Sometimes, they recorded as many as 20 tapes a day.
"We really don't expect to find any new talent this way," Lowe said at the time, "but we don't want to take any chances on missing any, either."
After all, Cameo-Parkway's greatest talent discovery - Chubby Checker - had been recommended by a friend of Kal Mann's who had discovered the singer, then named Ernest Evans, plucking chickens in a poultry house.
Mann and Mr. Lowe auditioned him and were impressed.
About the same time, American Bandstand host Dick Clark was urging his friends at Cameo-Parkway to record the "Twist," a song written and performed by Hank Ballard. Mann and Mr. Lowe had Evans - renamed Chubby Checker by Dick Clark's wife - redo the Ballard piece, note-for-note.
The result was a record that twice climbed to the top of the pop charts, in 1960 and again in 1962, started a dance craze and put Philadelphia at the center of the pop music industry.
Mr. Lowe accepted no credit for starting the twist. He felt Chubby Checker had come along at just the right moment after the dance already started and, with his hip-swinging gyrations and his hoarse delivery, popularized it.
Cameo-Parkway's successes made Mr. Lowe famous. But he was introspective and shy, and "always in awe of what was happening to him," said his daughter. "He was almost terrified of being famous."
Although he played the piano most of his life and played it well, he was so shy that he had to be begged to play at parties, she said. "The only time he would graciously play was when we were all alone in the house, and I would sing and my sister would dance."
The Cameo-Parkway label was sold in 1965, and Mr. Lowe retired.
For a time, he continued to work in the recording industry, doing some
freelance music work and scouting for new performing groups. But he developed Parkinson's disease after he retired and was soon unable to work.
In April, Mr. Lowe was inducted into the Philadelphia Walk of Fame, and his star was placed in the sidewalk in front of 309 S. Broad St., the building that was once the headquarters for Cameo-Parkway.
He is survived by his wife, Rosalyn Land Lowe; daughters, Lynne Lowe Jacobus and Judith Garfield; three sisters, and four granddaughters.
Services and burial will be private
Bernie Lowe, 75; Gave The World The 'Twist' And The 'bristol Stomp'
By Andy Wallace, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 03, 1993
Bernie Lowe, 75, songwriter and co-founder of Cameo-Parkway Records - the independent recording company that gave the world Chubby Checker and the Twist - died Wednesday at his home in Wyncote.
Besides discovering Chubby Checker, Cameo-Parkway was responsible for the Dovells' "Bristol Stomp," the Orlons' "Wah-Watusi," Dee Dee Sharp's ''Mashed Potato Time" and dozens of other hit dance records in the heady days of rock 'n roll. The company also turned out hits for Bobby Rydell and The Tymes.
Between 1956 and 1964, Cameo-Parkway was said to be the largest independent label in the country, and Mr. Lowe "was the Philadelphia dance maven," said his daughter, Lynne Lowe Jacobus.
"He turned out the stuff that Dick Clark played.
"He would come home with a new dance every week - the fish, limbo rock, watusi, the mashed potato," she said.
She said she and her sister, Judith Garfield, used to try out all the new dance tunes and help Mr. Lowe separate the hits from the flops. "We would give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and he would decide which to go with," she said.
Of all the hits he composed or produced, she said, the one closest to his heart was "South Street" by the Orlons - "because he was born and raised on South Street," she said.
Born Bernard Lowenthal, Mr. Lowe graduated from Central High School and studied piano at The Juilliard School in New York. When he was 13, he was playing the piano in clubs, hotels and cafes around the city.
After high school, he played for Meyer Davis and for orchestras led by Howard and Lester Lanin. He performed in night clubs around the country.
In 1956, he and his partner, Kal Mann, founded Cameo Records in the basement of Mr. Lowe's house in West Oak Lane. The two men, both composers, wrote a song, "Butterfly," and got South Philadelphia singer Charlie Gracie to record it.
The record sold a million copies and financed the founding of Cameo Records. A subsidiary, Parkway Records, was added in 1959. Mr. Lowe, with Mann and Dave Appel, wrote most of the songs the company recorded.
Cameo-Parkway focused on the teenage market and enjoyed phenomenal success
from its founding through the mid-1960s. At one time, it was one of the four largest producers of hit singles (then 45 rpm) in the country.
Mr. Lowe was never sure why the company was so successful.
"I feel like I'm the world's oldest teenager," he said in an interview in 1964, "but you can't really predict how the kids are going to react.
"We have people who go to the hops and parties all over the country and see what the kids are playing. DJs tell us what they request and of course we follow the sales, but the kids are still unpredictable."
Cameo-Parkway not only sold to the teenage market. The company went out of its way to find young talent.
Every Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon, the company opened its studio and invited teenage musicians or musical groups to make a tape. Sometimes, they recorded as many as 20 tapes a day.
"We really don't expect to find any new talent this way," Lowe said at the time, "but we don't want to take any chances on missing any, either."
After all, Cameo-Parkway's greatest talent discovery - Chubby Checker - had been recommended by a friend of Kal Mann's who had discovered the singer, then named Ernest Evans, plucking chickens in a poultry house.
Mann and Mr. Lowe auditioned him and were impressed.
About the same time, American Bandstand host Dick Clark was urging his friends at Cameo-Parkway to record the "Twist," a song written and performed by Hank Ballard. Mann and Mr. Lowe had Evans - renamed Chubby Checker by Dick Clark's wife - redo the Ballard piece, note-for-note.
The result was a record that twice climbed to the top of the pop charts, in 1960 and again in 1962, started a dance craze and put Philadelphia at the center of the pop music industry.
Mr. Lowe accepted no credit for starting the twist. He felt Chubby Checker had come along at just the right moment after the dance already started and, with his hip-swinging gyrations and his hoarse delivery, popularized it.
Cameo-Parkway's successes made Mr. Lowe famous. But he was introspective and shy, and "always in awe of what was happening to him," said his daughter. "He was almost terrified of being famous."
Although he played the piano most of his life and played it well, he was so shy that he had to be begged to play at parties, she said. "The only time he would graciously play was when we were all alone in the house, and I would sing and my sister would dance."
The Cameo-Parkway label was sold in 1965, and Mr. Lowe retired.
For a time, he continued to work in the recording industry, doing some
freelance music work and scouting for new performing groups. But he developed Parkinson's disease after he retired and was soon unable to work.
In April, Mr. Lowe was inducted into the Philadelphia Walk of Fame, and his star was placed in the sidewalk in front of 309 S. Broad St., the building that was once the headquarters for Cameo-Parkway.
He is survived by his wife, Rosalyn Land Lowe; daughters, Lynne Lowe Jacobus and Judith Garfield; three sisters, and four granddaughters.
Services and burial will be private
By Andy Wallace, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: September 03, 1993
Bernie Lowe, 75, songwriter and co-founder of Cameo-Parkway Records - the independent recording company that gave the world Chubby Checker and the Twist - died Wednesday at his home in Wyncote.
Besides discovering Chubby Checker, Cameo-Parkway was responsible for the Dovells' "Bristol Stomp," the Orlons' "Wah-Watusi," Dee Dee Sharp's ''Mashed Potato Time" and dozens of other hit dance records in the heady days of rock 'n roll. The company also turned out hits for Bobby Rydell and The Tymes.
Between 1956 and 1964, Cameo-Parkway was said to be the largest independent label in the country, and Mr. Lowe "was the Philadelphia dance maven," said his daughter, Lynne Lowe Jacobus.
"He turned out the stuff that Dick Clark played.
"He would come home with a new dance every week - the fish, limbo rock, watusi, the mashed potato," she said.
She said she and her sister, Judith Garfield, used to try out all the new dance tunes and help Mr. Lowe separate the hits from the flops. "We would give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and he would decide which to go with," she said.
Of all the hits he composed or produced, she said, the one closest to his heart was "South Street" by the Orlons - "because he was born and raised on South Street," she said.
Born Bernard Lowenthal, Mr. Lowe graduated from Central High School and studied piano at The Juilliard School in New York. When he was 13, he was playing the piano in clubs, hotels and cafes around the city.
After high school, he played for Meyer Davis and for orchestras led by Howard and Lester Lanin. He performed in night clubs around the country.
In 1956, he and his partner, Kal Mann, founded Cameo Records in the basement of Mr. Lowe's house in West Oak Lane. The two men, both composers, wrote a song, "Butterfly," and got South Philadelphia singer Charlie Gracie to record it.
The record sold a million copies and financed the founding of Cameo Records. A subsidiary, Parkway Records, was added in 1959. Mr. Lowe, with Mann and Dave Appel, wrote most of the songs the company recorded.
Cameo-Parkway focused on the teenage market and enjoyed phenomenal success
from its founding through the mid-1960s. At one time, it was one of the four largest producers of hit singles (then 45 rpm) in the country.
Mr. Lowe was never sure why the company was so successful.
"I feel like I'm the world's oldest teenager," he said in an interview in 1964, "but you can't really predict how the kids are going to react.
"We have people who go to the hops and parties all over the country and see what the kids are playing. DJs tell us what they request and of course we follow the sales, but the kids are still unpredictable."
Cameo-Parkway not only sold to the teenage market. The company went out of its way to find young talent.
Every Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon, the company opened its studio and invited teenage musicians or musical groups to make a tape. Sometimes, they recorded as many as 20 tapes a day.
"We really don't expect to find any new talent this way," Lowe said at the time, "but we don't want to take any chances on missing any, either."
After all, Cameo-Parkway's greatest talent discovery - Chubby Checker - had been recommended by a friend of Kal Mann's who had discovered the singer, then named Ernest Evans, plucking chickens in a poultry house.
Mann and Mr. Lowe auditioned him and were impressed.
About the same time, American Bandstand host Dick Clark was urging his friends at Cameo-Parkway to record the "Twist," a song written and performed by Hank Ballard. Mann and Mr. Lowe had Evans - renamed Chubby Checker by Dick Clark's wife - redo the Ballard piece, note-for-note.
The result was a record that twice climbed to the top of the pop charts, in 1960 and again in 1962, started a dance craze and put Philadelphia at the center of the pop music industry.
Mr. Lowe accepted no credit for starting the twist. He felt Chubby Checker had come along at just the right moment after the dance already started and, with his hip-swinging gyrations and his hoarse delivery, popularized it.
Cameo-Parkway's successes made Mr. Lowe famous. But he was introspective and shy, and "always in awe of what was happening to him," said his daughter. "He was almost terrified of being famous."
Although he played the piano most of his life and played it well, he was so shy that he had to be begged to play at parties, she said. "The only time he would graciously play was when we were all alone in the house, and I would sing and my sister would dance."
The Cameo-Parkway label was sold in 1965, and Mr. Lowe retired.
For a time, he continued to work in the recording industry, doing some
freelance music work and scouting for new performing groups. But he developed Parkinson's disease after he retired and was soon unable to work.
In April, Mr. Lowe was inducted into the Philadelphia Walk of Fame, and his star was placed in the sidewalk in front of 309 S. Broad St., the building that was once the headquarters for Cameo-Parkway.
He is survived by his wife, Rosalyn Land Lowe; daughters, Lynne Lowe Jacobus and Judith Garfield; three sisters, and four granddaughters.
Services and burial will be private
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